"I would not be sure Luka would start the season at Tottenham. The club would be happy to sell if they get the right money. The chairman said to him last year 'Give us one more season and if Real come in, I won't stand in your way'."

It's probably fair to say that the appointment of Andre Villas Boas has met with a mixed reaction from the Spurs fans. On the one hand there's his unbeaten and trophy-laden season at Porto to consider. On the other, there is his ill-fated and brief tenure at Stamford Bridge.

Now that the dust has settled on another Premier League season, it's time to gauge Spurs' achievement in finishing where they did. Fourth spot would normally guarantee Champions League football, but that was scuppered by Chelsea's win in Munich and by a comedy performance in goal by West Brom's keeper in their final game against that other team from North London. How ironic that Marton Fulop was once on Spurs' books and how telling that he never made an appearance for the club.

For the moment, let's not worry about the future prospect of Chelsea winning the Champions League and turning fourth place into a Europa League spot in the process. Let's look instead at the past and the present. Ten short weeks ago Spurs beat Newcastle 5-0, with a performance full of verve and creativity. Those same qualities were on show this past weekend - but unfortunately at St. James' Park, as a resurgent Newcastle put three past Stoke without reply.

Well, at least Spurs can now concentrate fully on finishing fourth. The "goal that never was" in the FA Cup semi-final has been analyzed, dissected and examined ad nauseam, and it could certainly be argued that it was the turning point in the game. The final score, however, would seem to suggest that a Chelsea victory might well have been the eventual outcome, regardless of the latest glaring error committed by the hapless Martin Atkinson.

Newcastle's win at the Liberty Stadium - their fourth in a row - keeps them hot on the heels of Spurs, who themselves face another north-east club this weekend. With the gap between fourth and fifth now standing at just two points Spurs will be hoping not only to take something from their visit to Sunderland, but also that Wigan can maintain their recent run of good form when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

There's been an awful lot of doom and gloom lately about Spurs' supposed slump, which has seen that other team from north London claw back a ten point gap and take over third place. Harry Redknapp, however, has been typically sanguine about the run of results which has seen Spurs take two points from a possible fifteen:

Defeats in the Premier League, that is. Spurs are now clinging on to third place by a single point, following the last gasp victory against Newcastle by that other team from north London. The last time Spurs lost three on the bounce, Juande Ramos was shown the door and Harry Redknapp took his place.